Efficiency, Innovation, and Sustainability in Healthcare Systems

Dear Colleagues,

A country’s healthcare system is a major pillar of its social infrastructure, aiming to provide safe, effective, and high-quality services to the population. The sustainability of healthcare systems is a long-term challenge that is threatened by populations aging, the increasing prevalence of chronic conditions, costly new therapies leading to substantial rises in health expenditures, the shortage of qualified health personnel, and the increasing challenges in administrative processes and cybersecurity, not to mention unexpected burdens from natural disasters or pandemics. From an equity perspective, focusing on sustainability is critical in prioritizing the distribution of scarce health resources between the present and the future. Hence, it becomes an issue of efficiency, as the non-wasteful use of human, material, informational, and energy resources is crucial in viable and sustainable development. Strategic management decisions and policies targeting efficiency and sustainability cannot ignore innovation, as it is fundamental in achieving both. In view of the healthcare sustainable development goals (SDGs), policymakers around the globe are facing the challenge of balancing cost containment with equity, quality, and environmentally friendly innovation.

This Special Issue of Healthcare aims to contribute new knowledge to the scientific literature on the topics of efficiency, innovation, quality, and sustainability in healthcare systems, as well as to fuel ongoing debates on these and/or other related issues. Original research articles and all types of reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) framework in healthcare, the efficient use of health resources, sustainability and health inequities, sustainable financing, innovation and big data analytics.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Nikolaos Kontodimopoulos
Dr. Olatunde Aremu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• efficiency
• equity
• financing
• health systems
• healthcare
• innovation
• quality
• sustainability